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Wednesday, 23 January 2013

Theology 101 - Types of Christian Theology

The study of theology is concerned with speech about God, with the speech of God, and with the experiences that
are said to derive from Him. We now
understand the sources of theological reasoning as well as the value of this
kind of study. In this post, we turn to
examine the various ‘types’ of Christian theology. [1] This post will be a little more complicated than the others,
but we should persevere. We are well on our way to understanding the breadth of
theological study!

When
we speak of the various types of Christian theology we refer to its disciplines and traditions. However, before we begin to explore these
disciplines and traditions, it may be helpful to suggest an analogy. Let’s
propose that Christian theology acts as the ‘grammar’ of faith. [2] Just like the rules of grammar help
us to structure language, theological study informs the order and cogency of
belief. To continue this linguistic analogy, the disciplines and traditions of
Christian theology may be understood in terms of ‘punctuation’ and ‘accent’. In
what follows we’re going to explore this analogy more deeply.The
various disciplines of Christian
theology constitute the ‘punctuation’ of theological study. Just like a full stop or a semi-colon arranges
our sentences, these disciplines inform the arrangement of Christian theology
and the way in which its various sources are presented. We may list five
examples.

(1)
Biblical Theology – As we
discussed in the previous post, revelation is one of the central sources of
Christian theology. When we speak of Biblical theology, we don’t mean to
suggest that the other disciplines fail to consult the Bible. Rather, Biblical
theology uses the Scriptural data to paint a ‘big picture’. For example, a
Biblical theology of the Eucharist may start with the observation that in
Genesis 14:17-20, Melchizedek the High Priest gives Abram a gift of bread and
wine as a sign of God’s blessing. It would proceed to note that in Hebrews
7:17, Jesus is regarded as a fulfilment of Melchizedek’s priesthood, and that
in the Last Supper narratives, He is seen offering bread and wine as a symbol
of Israel’s blessing through His own body and blood. A ‘big picture’ is thereby
painted through which our doctrine of the Eucharist may be given greater
clarity and new textual/theological connections may be made. [3]

(2)
Historical Theology – As
we discussed in the previous post, tradition is also one of the sources of
Christian theology. Historical theology attempts to speak of doctrine according
to its development throughout Christian history. In this regard, it’s a
discipline that’s in constant dialogue with Church tradition. For example, a
student doing historical theology may have an interest in the doctrine of
justification. She may begin by performing a thorough investigation of the NT
data, and proceed to trace its reception amongst the early Church. She may
observe how Augustine influenced Luther’s reading of Romans with regards
justification by faith alone. Nearly 500 years later, E.P. Sanders sought to
re-interpret the doctrine minus the ‘Lutheran spectacles’ that had influenced
so much of Western theology since the Reformation. Historical theology is
concerned with this sort of investigation. It constructs an account of
doctrinal development throughout Church history. [4]

(3)
Mystical Theology – We’ve
established that Christian theology is concerned with the experiences that are
said to derive from God. Mystical theology is especially interested in these
experiences as a source of theological reflection. One’s encounters with God in
prayer, worship, visions or mystical ecstasy are used to inform one’s
theological understanding. Mystical theology may use these encounters in a way
that complements Church tradition and the Bible, or in a way that disregards
both as inferior. [5]

(4)
Contextual Theology – Like
mystical theology, this is another discipline that is concerned with experience
but in a rather different way. The contextual theologian insists that praxis
should instruct theological reflection. In particular, the circumstances and
experiences of different social groups (especially marginalised or oppressed
ones) are used to inform the conclusions of contextual theology. Liberation
thought is one example of this discipline at work. Sensing the Biblical mandate
to champion the poor and oppose injustice, liberation theologians highlight the
local needs and experiences of varying demographics throughout the world, such
as the impoverished within Latin America. A liberation understanding of Jesus,
for example, would emphasise His mission to liberate the captives and bind up
the broken. According to the aforementioned example, a ‘Latin American Jesus’
would be constructed; one who was on the side of and identified with the
region’s oppressed. Instead of being constructed directly from Scripture or the
creeds of tradition, an understanding of Jesus is crafted using the experiences
of those within a specific situation. This is the nature of contextual
theology. [6]

(5)
Systematic Theology – It
may be suggested that the systematic theologian has to be the ‘jack of all
trades’. Systematic theology is concerned with the broad tapestry of Christian
theology. It seeks to construct an account of Christian theology using a
variety of sources and methods. It may even consult the conclusions of all the
disciplines listed so far. It’s aware of the various ways in which the subjects
of theology inter-connect with one another and it hopes to produce a cogent
model or ‘system’, one that accounts for these diverse theological expressions.
We may speak of a specific systematic
doctrine, one that produces a cogent model of a particular theology in the
manner described, or of a general
systematic theology, one that speaks from within a tradition about the nature
of its theology as a whole. [7]

These five disciples act as the ‘punctuation’
to theology’s overall ‘grammar’. They arrange the sources and presentation of
Christian theology in different ways, but they all concern speech about God and
the speech of God.

The
various traditions of Christian
theology, on the other hand, constitute the ‘accents’ of theological study. Throughout Christian history, different
Churches have spoken the language of faith in a diverse number of ways. The
Roman Catholic tradition, for example, speaks in a starkly different way about
theology than the Anabaptist tradition. The Reformed tradition enunciates
differently than the Lutheran tradition. The Eastern Orthodox tradition
proclaims in a vernacular distinct from the Coptic tradition, and so forth.

When
we speak of the ‘types’ of Christian theology, this is therefore what we mean. We’re referring to the various disciplines
that influence theological study as well as the diverse array of traditions
that do theological study particular to their own location.

Next time: Apologetics & Theology [Part
One] – How do they relate?

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[1] It’s worth noting at the
outset that there are a number of ways I could arrange an examination of the
‘types’ of Christian theology. I could list individual theologians and describe
how their approaches differ; I could identify a handful of competing theological
methods and give each one an individual exemplar; or I could describe the
various schools of Christian theology. I have opted for the latter, although
the former approaches are exampled by a generic reader volume in Christian
theology (such as the one edited by McGrath) and by Hans Frei’s Types of Christian Theology (1994),
respectively.

[2] This analogy of Christian
theology as the ‘grammar’ of faith is also found in R.W. Jenson’s Systematic Theology– Volume 1 (1997) and Rowan Williams’ On Christian Theology (2000). In Jenson’s words: “The Church is the
community that speaks Christianese” – it is the theologian’s task to understand
the rules of coherent expression (1997, 18).

[3] For Biblical theology, one
may wish to consult J.K. Mead’s Biblical
Theology: Issues, Methods and Themes (2007), or the more popularising Biblical Theology in the Life of the Church
(2010) by Michael Lawrence.

[4] For examples of historical
theology, one may suggest Reasoner’s Romans
in Full Circle (2005), which chronicles the history and interpretation of
Pauline theology. Or Dunn’s Christology
in the Making (2003), which traces the development and reception of
Christological thought as it is contained throughout the Scriptures. Or
Muller’s Christ and the Decree (2008),
which tracks the predestinarian and Christological doctrines of the Reformed
tradition. These are just illustrative, designed to give you a sense of what
historical theology entails.

[5] For examples of mystical
theology, one may look to Julian of Norwich’s Revelations of Divine Love (originally written c. 1400), or the
writings of Bernard of Clairvaux and Meister Eckhart. These all lived and wrote
within the medieval period, although theological reflection based on mystical
experiences has continued throughout Christian history. (Indeed, some of the 17th
Century Baptist prophetesses highlighted in Freeman’s A Company of Women Preachers (2011) write in a style occasionally
reminiscent of Julian of Norwich, c.f. Anne Wentworth’s England’s Spiritual Pill.

[6] Examples of contextual
theology would include the works of Liberation theologians, such as Leonardo
Boff’s Introduction to Liberation
Theology (1996) Boff’s Trinity and
Society (2005) and Gustavo Gütierrez’s Theology
of Liberation (2001). We would also include Feminist theologians, such as
Mary Daly or Rosemary Radford Ruether, and Black theologians, such as James
Cone or Robert Beckford.

[7] Theology has been done in a
systematic fashion for a very long time. One could turn to Irenaeus’ Against Heresies (2nd
Century) or Origen’s De Principiis (3rd
Century) for examples. However, properly speaking, systematic theology finds
its roots in works like Lombard’s Sentences,
Aquinas’ Summa or Calvin’s Institutes. One may wish to consult
Colin Gunton’s essay on ‘Historical and Systematic Theology’ in his edited text
The Cambridge Companion to Christian
Doctrine (1997). One may also wish to consult the systematic texts of
Berkhof, Grudem, Tillich or Pannenberg, or indeed The Oxford Handbook of Systematic Theology (2009), edited by Iain
Torrance. Much older, but also helpful, is B.B. Warfield’s The Right of Systematic Theology (originally published in 1897).